Not only that, but, having had a couple of days to visit it and look around, I can't help but notice that there's no real new news for today - everything is at least 24 hours old, or older. Including their amateurish Pat Downie graphic.
So...No new product and a new laughable look...Job well done, Peninsula Daily News! You're right on the cutting (your own throat) edge! I know they're pitching this as a sort of freshening up of their look, a way to put some sort of bright and shiny on their tarnished little product, but...I can't help but see this as a death notice. A last gasp. New format, less news, why bother, and, in the words of a certain lunatic presidential candidate, "You're fired!"
Or am I missing something wonderful and magical?
***UPDATED!***
Click the link below to learn a little bit more about Terry Ward's background/history. The PDN got themselves a real winner with Mr. Ward, you betcha!
And, they're downplaying Peninsula and just shortening the whole thing to "daily news". Only it isn't daily, it's 6 times a week.
ReplyDeleteIt stinks. Looks like a wordpress skin...and a free one at that. Terrible. The headlines are worse than ever, and now more obvious than ever.
Bleah, quick rats, jump off the sinking ship.
Meanwhile, if you go to KONP's website, you can read all about the local child sex criminals.
ReplyDeleteI thought those were the same instance just in two different articles. I saw you said 'criminals', and you are right. Jesus.
DeleteShhhh! Don't tell them they're screwing up! Isn't the point of this blog to take them down? LOL
ReplyDeleteYes. And.
ReplyDeleteDo remember the parent company of the PDN, Black Press, owns dozens of newspapers, large and small. The PDN is just a little blip on their screen.
Most Black Press publications have little "news" in them. They are just vehicles for advertising. It is no surprise to see the "news" content of the PDN declining. The PDN is being transformed into a clone of all the other Black Press properties. Thick wads of advertising from the area big box, corporate stores who also have no attachment to the local community, other than to finds new ways to suck money from the local population.
It is all about money.
As if nothing else matters.
In "today's" online edition, I count four, maybe five new stories, one of which is cribbed from the KONP story about one of the aforementioned sex criminals.
DeleteYou don't need a lot of staff to turn out that small amount of..."news."
I looked at the site a few minutes ago. A blend of mostly old stories, with a few newer articles mixed in. Really bad format. Who wants to be bothered wading through recycled stories to find out what is going on? What the latest developments are?
ReplyDeleteWho ever made this decision should be fired. As a business decision, this "new and improved" site shows a real lack of professionalism.
I've done web designs before and this breaks from several basic concepts. Primarily, not visually appealing. Second, viewers don't want to scroll any more than they have to. Third, disorganized. I agree they have taken their site back many years to an amateur status. I'd say it's high school level, but it's worse than that. Did one of the PDN's principals' junior high school kids do this as part of their summer job? Amazing.
ReplyDeleteTo call their website "new" is half-true. It's new to them, but a very, very old look.
DeleteBut for them to call it "improved"...Well, that's just another PDN lie.
Was Potleaf promoted to webmaster?
DeleteRead the Topix posts about Terry Ward. Not surprising. I know Terry from civic activities here, and I don't think much of how he deals with people and issues.
ReplyDeleteWard got onto the EDC board right away and started schilliing for them from the start. Notice the gratuitous article on the email sent to EDC from some flunkie in Dept. of Commerce. EDC sent him an email. Flunkie sends it back to EDC. EDC sends it to fellow member, Terry Ward and Ward publishes it as if it was a glowing accolade from Commerce. What a fraud. This is the shape of things for the time being. Tell the advertisers they are being boycotted so long as the PDN publishes lies and deals in fraud upon the people. EDC and PDN are all about keeping competition out and wages low. Watch and learn.
DeleteNow I get it. Ward was sent here to get rid of the costly areas of publishing the "news." So he will shed anyone making a living wage and bring in those who will take any job to get started in the business. Notice how often they run ads for reporters now. Who is getting the axe? They are already paying slave wages to the current crew. How much will someone have to endure to get one of Ward's new jobs? Cost Cutter Publishing. If he would only get around to replacing Google-eyed Gottlieb.
ReplyDeleteIronically, it was Paul Gottlieb who sent the link above to me. I guess things aren't so happy family down at the PDN as they could be...
DeleteGottleib has a job lined up at Country Arse, er ... Aire, as Josh Rancourt's flunkie, er ... assistant.
DeleteFrom Topix:
ReplyDeleteCan anyone tell me more about Terry Ward? He is now our newspaper publisher here in Frankfort Indiana and this sounds just like what is going on now in our town. Mr. Ward had taken the publisher position about a year ago and since then we have seen a change for the worse in our hometown paper. He has managed to censor the editorials and gives a one sided view of how things are in our town.
We currently are having many illegals living in our town. Frankfort is a community of about 16,000 plus people. 3,500 (or more by now) are foreign born. Of those 3,500, 75% are illegally here. This has caused our schools to fail with overcrowding of children belonging to illegals. Our I-STEP scores have fallen below state average and it is not getting better. We use to have citizens of our town write letters to the editor about the problems our community faces. Since Mr. Ward had taken over, these letters had stopped appearing in the paper. Now all you see in the paper is a candy coated one sided story of how these illegals are a asset to our town.
Many people of the Frankfort Times have left or was fired after he took over. I know someone who had worked there for 30 plus years that couldn't take him anymore and quit. Many subscribers to the Frankfort Times have stopped their subscriptions and advertisers are pulling out also. We, the people of Frankfort Indiana are not stupid. We know what Mr. Ward and the Frankfort Times are trying to do. They are forcing their views down our throats with a "In Your Face" attitude.
Any info about Mr. Ward would be very much appreciated. We the citizens of Frankfort need to be aware of who we are dealing with.
What planet are you on that a two county region with a population of adults totallimg less than 100,000 can support a newspaper?
ReplyDeleteFold into the Kitsap Sun.
Gee, I don't know. Maybe because it has for the last?? decades?
DeleteI notice there's nothing on their online "letters" page but the print copy has had several pro-flouride letters to the editor published that are negative about the flouride four. I wonder if there were any anti flouride letters that were just conveniently not published? We'll never know. Also, I saw somewhere on social media that Delta Dental was in town and took over a local coffee shop buying coffee for everyone....hmmm...
ReplyDeleteHere's an idea:
ReplyDeleteThe Port and City should get together and form a quasi-governmental Public Development Authority to buy and manage the Nippon Mill site.
Orv Campbell can be appointed President, with Howie Ruddell, Jim Hallett, Jerry Hendricks and Kaj Ahlburg as board members. This dream team will surely possess the business acumen to make the venture succeed, especially if Jim Haguewood could be persuaded to serve the PDA as its interim executive director.